Bullying

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/31/nbully31.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/31/ixhome.html

After reading the above article I felt like sharing my thoughts. Bullying in schools has always been a huge problem and it appears to be something that will never go away. Since the main theme of the article is centred around the use of technology it got me thinking (Very dangerous i know).

While out on school experience 1 there was an issue between 2 young pupils that at one time were best of friends. After a major falling out issues started to arrise outside of school, so the question is who's responsibility is it to sort this out. The pastoral care teacher from my point of view did everything he could, he tried to report it up the school but as it was out of school there was nothing they could do about it, his next step was to explain to the parent how to stop the messages getting through on Instant messaging software (Which will remain nameless).

I honestly can't think of any other steps he could have taken. It is possible that if the school had gotten more involved at an earlier stage the problems could have been sorted out but when it is not happening in school hours what can they do?

In a general sense what more can be done to protect children online, Should an internet security class be a mandatory thing for parents as well as pupils?

Any thoughts?